Columns

Just before Easter, an oil pipeline owned by Exxon-Mobil burst under the town of Mayflower, Ark., sending 5,000 barrels of oil spilling into the streets. The source of the leak has since been reported as a gash 20 feet long and two inches wide. This is only the most recent in a growing list of disastrous oil spills we've had to deal with in America in recent years.
 

April is Autism Awareness Month, and all over the world various advocacy groups, parents' resource agencies and activists are "lighting it up blue" to build awareness of autism and related disabilities. This annual event was held on April 2, World Autism Awareness Day, and was marked by landmarks all over the world bathed in blue light to draw attention to the cause of finding treatments for autism.
 

This was one of those weeks that gives commentators fits. So much important stuff happened, it just doesn't seem possible to pick just one thing to comment on.
From the international stage to local politics, it seemed someone was doing something noteworthy, cringeworthy or just amusing.
So in the spirit of somewhat lazy columnists everywhere, instead of picking one topic and banging on it, I'll just give my take on some of the highlights of the week.
 

So, that happened.
On Friday, in total non-defiance of both recent history and national expectations, Congress failed to come to an agreement to avert the latest unnecessary self-inflicted wound on the nation in the form of the so-called sequester.